COMMONS

By CANADALANDSociety & Culture Documentary News True Crime Politics

COMMONS episodes

November 27, 2018 CORRUPTION 5 - The King of Cabbagetown
For twenty years, he's controlled public institutions from behind the scenes. He brags about his connections to organized crime. And he's connected to some of the most powerful people in Canada. So who is the King of Cabbagetown? This follows up on the last episode, "Papa Pump and the Small Town Shakedown."

To learn more: "Connected" in The Globe and Mail by Greg McArthur, Karen Howlett and Adrian Morrow. "A ‘Big Fish’ Seeks a Seat at the Toronto District School Board" in The Globe and Mail by Karen Howlett, Caroline Alphonso and Greg McArthur. "Inside the Nasty, Bizarro, Contemptible, Gobsmackingly Screwed-up Soap Opera that is the TDSB" in Toronto Life by Philip Preville "The Green Mobster: Rizzuto Family Secretly Owned Firm that Won Municipal Contracts" in The National Post by Adrian Humphreys
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
25 min
November 13, 2018 CORRUPTION 4 - Papa Pump and the Small Town Shakedown
In the eleven years that Marolyn Morrison was the mayor of Caledon, Ontario, she faced down deep-pocketed developers, mafia enforcers and corrupt federal officials. When millions of dollars are at stake, things get heated.

To learn more:

"Battleground Caledon" in Toronto Life by Kelly Pullen

"Connected" in The Globe and Mail by Greg McArthur, Karen Howlett and Adrian Morrow

"Corrupt tax auditor gets three years" in The Toronto Star by Marco Chown Oved
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
24 min
October 30, 2018 CORRUPTION 3 - The Trouble with Paradise: How Canadians Built the Offshore World
The Panama Papers revealed to the world just how deeply enmeshed tax havens are in the global economy. And for 100 years, Canadian banks, businessmen and politicians have worked to build that offshore system, alongside crooks, fraudsters and corrupt officials.

To learn more:

Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens by Nicholas Shaxson

Canada: A New Tax Haven: How the Country That Shaped Caribbean Tax Havens is Becoming One Itself by Alain Deneault

The Billionaire and the Bank (Global News 16x9)
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
23 min
October 16, 2018 CORRUPTION 2 - How Vancouver Became A Money Laundering Paradise
For years, people could walk into Vancouver-area casinos with tens of thousands of dollars of suspicious cash and walk out with clean money, no questions asked. That money may be fuelling two of the biggest problems the city is facing: the housing crisis and the opiate epidemic.
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
21 min
October 03, 2018 CORRUPTION 1 - The Most Crime-Ridden Neighbourhood In Canada
This season, Commons will be focusing on stories at the intersection of money, influence and politics in Canada. In this episode, we take you to what may be Canada’s most criminal neighbourhood — Toronto’s financial district. Along for the ride is investigative journalist Bruce Livesey, author of “The Thieves of Bay Street.”
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
26 min
June 19, 2018 Ep. 97 - What The Hell Is A Fairness Letter?
Mohamed Waleed Taleb is stuck in Turkey. He applied to come to Canada in 2015 and was flagged under section 34 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for his pro-democracy work against the Assad regime. He's responded to the governement's concerns and is now waiting to hear back on a final decision: will he be let into Canada, or will he be deemed "inadmissible". We spoke to Waleed about his experience. We also spoke to his lawyer Pierre Andre Theriault to better understand Waleed's case. This episode was inspired by Canada's Missing Syrians, by Canadian journalist Gareth Chantler.
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
40 min
June 05, 2018 Ep. 96 - Canada Is Not Racist... According To The Stats
If you look at the stats, Canada has a low incidence of hate crimes, but the numbers that we rely on to tell us if we're racist or not are wrong. In this episode, we speak to journalist and Executive Director, of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network Evan Balgord who explains why that is. Evan represented the research of Barbara Perry Professor and Undergraduate Program Director, of Criminology at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui PhD Candidate and Researcher at McMaster University.
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
30 min
May 22, 2018 Ep. 95 - What Do Peacekeepers Actually Do?
The Liberal government announced earlier this year that it would send around 200 troops to assist in a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. But what does "peacekeeping" look like in today's world and what do peacekeepers actually do? In this episode, we speak to Major-General Denis Thompson (Retired) and Aisha Ahmad, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, to answer these questions.
stions.
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
39 min
May 08, 2018 Ep.94 - Life In Canada Without Clean Water
Canada has 20 per cent of the world's freshwater and yet some Indigenous communities have not had access to clean drinking water for decades. In this episode, we speak to Rachel Arsenault a master’s student at Laurentian University's Indigenous Relations program who works with Decolonizing Water an Indigenous-led community-based water monitoring initiative. We also speak with Samantha Redsky of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation .
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
31 min
April 24, 2018 Ep. 93 - The All-White Jury In Canada
The acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the shooting of Colten Boushie sparked outrage across Canada. The anger was further fuelled by the fact that the jury was all white, in a community that had a significant Indigenous population. After the Gerald Stanley verdict, the government proposed sweeping changes to the legal system in Bill C-75. The legal community has been divided on these proposed changes - some say they are an important first step to make juries more diverse, while other say they will actually make things worse.

Kent Roach, chair of law and public policy at the University of Toronto, talks about the legal mechanism that lets this happen.
Roseanne Sylvester tells the story of her brother, Donald Marshall Jr., a Mi'kmaq man who was wrongfully convicted by and all-white jury decades ago.
Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
29 min

About COMMONS

From the publisher's feed

COMMONS is a documentary podcast that proves Canada is anything but boring. Each season, host Arshy Mann guides you through the country’s dark underbelly, bringing you stories about…